Proposed voter ID law suppresses voting rights

Published September 19, 2012 at 12:05 pm

Dear Editor:

The proposed voter ID law in Minnesota is a blatant attempt to suppress voting rights for the poor, the infirm, and the elderly. It is a deliberate partisan effort to win elections that might otherwise be lost. It is promoted by the Republican party who knows full well that the majority of the disenfranchised will be Democratic voters.

Here is some information from the Minnesota League of Women Voters about dangers of this ID law:

It will allow only four kinds of ID’s: a Minnesota drivers license, a Minnesota issued Photo ID card, a tribal ID, or a newly created form of Voter ID showing the voters home address. Voters could not use a Passport, military ID, or Student ID. This would seriously hamper mail-in voting. Approximately 11 percent of voters do not carry ID’s that meets these rigid requirements. When elections are as close as some recent ones, results could most certainly be altered by voters who could not vote.

Republicans are trying to frighten the public into believing that non-citizens can vote in our elections without being detected. But our present system prevents this now. When a voter registers to vote they must provide a drivers license, a state ID number, or the last four digits of their social security number. This information is matched against data from the Department of Public Safety and if there is no match it is flagged and that voter is required to furnish further proof of citizenship.

It is a partisan myth that voter ID laws would prevent illegal voting. The only type of illegal voting that a photo-ID can prevent is voters attempting to vote twice. There has been no evidence of this in any Minnesota election.

Not only would this voter ID law create obstructions for non-mobile, poor, and older voters, it would also add more unfunded costs to our elections. Taxpayers will pay for the required free IDs and citizens will pay for the necessary documents needed to get their ID.

The law is totally unnecessary since voter fraud is nearly unknown and no one in Minnesota has ever been convicted of voter impersonation.